Chapter 112

Ye Manzhi experienced the feeling of a baby sleeping in a rocking cradle, but after putting on her clothes, she had to turn back into an adult.

She is one of the four translators selected by the provincial election. She participated in the business training of the Provincial Foreign Affairs Office. After mastering foreign affairs etiquette and discipline, she will officially take up her post.

The Czechoslovak exchange group would stay in Binjiang for five days, but Ye Manzhi and others were only responsible for translation work on the first day.

In the morning, I gave a speech in the auditorium of the Provincial University, and then visited the Binjiang Heavy Machinery Factory and Binjiang Textile Factory No. 1.

After the day's itinerary, their translation work came to a successful conclusion.

Ye Manzhi, wearing a neatly ironed Lenin suit and with her hair neatly combed into a bun, successfully completed the translation of the group leader's speech in front of all the teachers and students from the two departments.

Both the department head and Grandpa Wu, who was invited to attend the event, highly praised her performance.

Ye Manzhi was quite excited at first, but in the afternoon, after accompanying the foreign guests to visit the heavy machinery factory, she was no longer happy.

For today's work, she specially bought a pair of black square-heeled leather shoes as required by the Foreign Affairs Office.

She didn't know if it was because of the new shoes or because she walked too much, but as soon as she walked into the textile factory, she felt a dull pain in her heel.

Minister Liu from the Municipal Trade Union Propaganda Department noticed something was wrong with her and whispered, "Did your shoes rub your feet?"

Ye Manzhi nodded.

"Can you still hold on?"

Ye Manzhi nodded again.

Minister Liu asked the translator behind him to step forward first, then pulled her out of the team and took out two pieces of gauze and handed them to her.

"When you attend important events in the future, try not to wear new shoes. If you really have no other choice, keep two pieces of gauze in your bag in case of emergency."

Ye Manzhi knew that this was the experience of her predecessors, so she took the gauze and thanked her.

The heels of the black leather shoes she usually wore did not meet the requirements of the Foreign Affairs Office. She didn't expect the new shoes to be so uncomfortable!

While Ye Manzhi was explaining her situation to her, she was putting gauze next to the flower bed. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that there seemed to be a conflict at the entrance of the textile factory.

She raised her head and looked over, and sure enough, she saw the security guard stopping a young man holding a banner.

Minister Liu also noticed the commotion over there and frowned, "What's going on at the textile factory? They knew we had foreign guests visiting today, yet they still started a commotion at the factory gate? What's that banner saying?"

Because the two sides were arguing, Ye Manzhi did not see the content on the banner clearly. She waited until the young man broke free from the security guard and raised the banner again before she read out the content.

"We need to work! We need to eat! Zheng Guoshun is the lackey who raped Gu Tao! Punish Zheng Guoshun severely!" Ye Manzhi asked doubtfully, "Who is Zheng Guoshun?"

Minister Liu's face turned pale. He cursed softly and said, "Zheng Guoshun is the director of Textile Factory No. 1."

The young man who was pulling the banner with great courage, as if he was risking his life, not only held up the banner with big words written on it, but also shouted out the contents on it.

Seeing that some people in the delegation had heard the shouts and looked back, Minister Liu pulled up Ye Manyzhi, who had just put on her shoes.

"We can't let him make such a fuss! What will happen if foreign guests see us?"

Ye Manzhi felt that the timing of this young man's troublemaking was a bit subtle.

Many provincial leaders have indeed come today. If he makes a big deal out of this, perhaps he can get their attention.

But there is also the risk of being suppressed by others. After all, family disgrace should not be made public.

While Ye Manzhi was thinking, he quickly pulled down a few welcome flags from the tree trunk next to him.

He quickly ran to the entrance of the textile factory and handed the colorful flags to the security guard and two security officers.

"The foreign guests have noticed what's going on here. Don't get into a fight with this comrade. Just let him shout whatever he wants. The foreign guests won't understand!" Ye Manzhi urged. "Hurry up and wave the colorful flags! Shout welcome!"

She didn't care who would embarrass herself in front of the provincial and municipal leaders, but she must not show weakness in front of foreign guests today.

The three people who were assigned to the colorful flags were stunned for a moment, looked at each other, and the oldest guard was the first to react.

Ignoring the troublemaker, he raised his arms, waved two pennants made of colored paper, and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Welcome, welcome, warm welcome! Welcome, welcome, warm welcome!"

Seeing this, the other two followed suit and waved and shouted together. The three of them stood on both sides of the young man who was making trouble, as if they were really a welcoming team arranged by the factory.

Minister Liu and the young man: "::::::"

Ye Manzhi felt like laughing at an inappropriate moment. She winked at Minister Liu and quickly returned to the delegation. She said to the foreign guests in Russian, "They are welcoming everyone!"

She wasn't lying, the three of them were indeed shouting welcome.

Since the exchange group had already witnessed the welcoming ceremony from college students and heavy machinery factory workers, the word "welcome" was somewhat familiar to them.

Hearing the slogans at the door, they couldn't help but waved over there.

Although the people on our side present could not see the content of the banner clearly due to the distance, nor could they hear what the man shouted, they could be sure that it was definitely not a welcome speech.

Ye Manzhi maintained a smile, seemingly unnoticed, as she reported to the highest-ranking deputy director of the Provincial Department of Industry, "There's a man at the gate holding up a banner saying they want work! They want food! Zheng Guoshun is Gu Tao's lackey who raped him! Punish Zheng Guoshun severely! I don't know who Zheng Guoshun and Gu Tao are, and since I can't persuade him to leave right away, I can only have the guards wave colorful flags to welcome the foreign guests."

Deputy Director Xu's expression remained unchanged, he even nodded, smiled and made a "please" gesture to the foreign guests, inviting them to continue their factory tour.

Ye Manzhi followed the main force and thought to herself that this was all she could do to help that old man.

As for how to deal with the follow-up, it depends on the opinions of the leaders above.

After all, this was someone else's factory business, and Ye Manyi thought it had nothing to do with him anymore.

However, after all the foreign affairs activities that day were over, Ye Manzhi, as a third-party party present, was asked to cooperate with the investigation together with Minister Liu of the Municipal Federation of Trade Unions.

Although she covered up this matter, it was an accident related to foreign affairs work and the situation must be explained.

Ye Manzhi truthfully described the situation at that time. As soon as he finished speaking, he saw the young man who was causing trouble being brought out of another office by two police officers.

When he passed by her, he seemed to recognize her as the one who had ruined his good thing, and immediately looked at her viciously.

Ye Manzhi's heart skipped a beat for no reason, but she quickly glared back without showing any weakness.

In front of the public security comrades, he stopped him and said, "I'm helping you today, how can you be so ungrateful? You're a factory employee, right? If you really make this matter known to foreign guests, even if that Zheng is brought to justice, you won't have a good outcome. Now the provincial government has sent people to investigate your case, the matter has become a big deal, and you've achieved your goal. Why are you still glaring at me?"

She didn't want to offend someone who secretly hated her just because she meddled in other people's business.

The young man said nothing, withdrew his gaze and followed the public security comrades away.

Minister Liu looked at his back and asked, "Why is he causing trouble?"

An insider revealed: "His wife was a female worker at the textile factory. When the workshop director assigned her to work the night shift, she was almost raped by him. He and his wife came to the factory to seek justice. The factory not only protected the workshop director by claiming they had no evidence, but also fired his wife a month later."

Ye Manzhi asked, "What's the relationship between Director Zheng and Gu Tao? Why do you say he's a lackey of the XXX criminal?"

"Gu Tao is the workshop director. He is Director Zheng's brother-in-law."

Ye Manzhi heard a lot of gossip about the textile factory from the investigation team. When she went to school the next day, she went to the office and shared the matter with Teacher Ouyang.

In order to observe the effectiveness of the implementation of certain policies and measures to protect female workers, the research team will find several representative enterprises and continue to follow up.

There are many female workers in the textile factory, and the factory has always done a good job in protecting female workers. It is one of the scientific research bases chosen by Professor Ouyang for the research team.

She felt it necessary to tell the teacher what happened yesterday.

Ouyang Jin said seriously, "Her case is indeed difficult to handle. She can't provide evidence of being molested. Unless someone has experienced the same thing as her and is willing to come forward to testify, we can report it to the higher-ups together. However, if the workshop director is a relative of the factory director, the other female workers may not dare to come forward."

"I heard that the female worker had just given birth and hadn't been transferred back to her original position, so she went to the workshop director. But the workshop director refused her because the position was full. He also asked her to work more night shifts to improve her performance. But then he tried to abuse her while she was on night shift..."

The textile factory does a good job of protecting female workers. Any female worker who is confirmed to be pregnant will be transferred from the front-line heavy physical positions to do lighter work.

However, the textile factory operates on a piece-rate wage system, and after being transferred from front-line positions, the female workers' income plummeted.

Therefore, many female workers apply to be transferred back to their original positions immediately after giving birth.

However, positions in the workshop were very limited, and it would be difficult for her to return after she left because of her pregnancy.

It is inevitable to ask for help from the workshop director through connections.

If what the young man said is true, there must be many female workers who returned to work in the textile factory who have been harassed by the workshop director.

Ye Manzhi frowned and said, "Teacher, our research team previously included the textile factory as a positive example in our research report, and the labor union also encouraged other units to learn from this advanced experience of the textile factory. Now, several factories in the city have responded to the call and copied the textile factory's methods to protect female workers. But now it seems that whether this method is worth promoting is still under discussion. I think the factory's original intention is good, but the return of female workers to work is a very real problem, and it is easy for people to exploit loopholes in this regard."

Teacher Ouyang pondered for a moment and said, "Let's continue to pay attention to this case. The textile factory is a benchmark set by the city for protecting female workers..."

She called the Municipal Women's Federation and the Women's Department of the Municipal Trade Union to explain the relevant situation.

Ye Manzhi also felt that this matter was rather tricky. The textile factory was a benchmark, and units from other provinces and cities had gone there to learn and exchange ideas. If a major scandal really broke out, the protection of female workers, which had just begun to improve, would be set back at least five years.

*

She pondered the matter for the entire afternoon, and when she returned home in the evening with her daughter in her arms, she was still thinking about the research group.

However, just as she absentmindedly walked into her yard, she saw Chang Yue'e pushing the door open and running in in a panic.

"Come on! Oh no! Your fifth brother has been arrested by the police!"

Ye Manzhi was startled and asked quickly, "What's going on? Why are you arresting Fifth Brother?"

"Someone from the transport team came to our house and told us that someone from the district public security bureau called the transport team and said your fifth brother had been arrested for speculation and profiteering, and asked the family to go to the public security bureau."

Ye Manzhi was puzzled, "How could my fifth brother be a speculator? The things he sold at the market were on behalf of the production team. He had letters of introduction from the production team and the commune! If he was speculator, how could he have stayed at the market for so long?"

Chang Yue'e said anxiously, "The policy changes every day. If they say the commune's letter of introduction is useless or fake, and they insist that he's engaged in speculation, there's no way we can get justice! Your father is working overtime in the workshop, and I can't get into the factory to find him. Please accompany me to the Public Security Bureau."

"If they want to arrest him for speculation and profiteering, shouldn't the police station here or the rural commune catch him in the act?" Ye Manzhi was full of doubts. "How did Fifth Brother get arrested by the district police station?"